Wingnuts

What’s Wrong With Iowa?

The chairman of the Iowa Republican party released the party's 2012 election platform today, and their platform includes everything you may typically find during a brief search of World Net Daily and the kitchen sink.

Via Felicia Sonmez, it looks like the Iowa GOP has gone birther. On Monday, Don Racheter, chairman of the Iowa GOP's 2012 platform committee, told Radio Iowa's O. Kay Henderson about the state party's new platform. Racheter said the document, which is still being drafted, was deliberately written to call into question President Barack Obama's eligibility for office by including a plank mandating that the commander-in-chief be a "natural born citizen" [...]

he rest of the Iowa GOP's platform is itself a somewhat spectacular document. The platform says much about the tone and tenor of the conservative grassroots five-and-a-half months out from election day. It advocates nullification of federal laws, the abolition of 10 cabinet-level departments (plus the TSA, FDA, ATF, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac), an end to birthright citizenship, and "the implementation of Lean Six Sigma" at all levels of government. It calls for the rejection of "UN Treaty on the Rights of the Child" (which social conservatives fear will curtail the perfectly justified practice of spanking), aims for the term "assault weapon" to be redefined as something other than a semi-automatic weapon, and asserts that "all individuals have the freedom to choose the quality of air in their home." The "so-called 'NAFTA Superhighway'"—which doesn't exist—should be scuttled. There are 14 different planks pertaining to the United Nations and the North American Union, most notably the pro-sustainability Agenda 21 pact, which the Iowa GOP considers "diabolical."

Birtherism, nullification, birthright citizenship, the NAFTA Superhighway, the "diabolical" UN. It's all there. The Iowa Republican party has apparently been replaced by the body snatchers, except the body snatchers in this case came from the John Birch Society, not another planet (as far as we know).

I've covered it here before, but I'll repeat it again -- the "Agenda 21" Republicans lovingly refer to, probably because it sounds a lot like Order 66, is nothing more than a set of guiding principles aimed at promoting economic growth without destroying the environment in the process. There's nothing "diabolical" about it unless you consider sustainable economic growth to be some kind of globalized devilry.

According to Thinkprogress, the Iowa GOP platform also includes a call to investigate ACORN.

We call for a full investigation of the organization formerly known as ACORN and its allied organizations, call for full prosecution of those involved in any illegalities discovered, and call for elimination of government funding of such organizations.

Didn't they get the memo?

The Iowa Democratic party is calling on Mitt Romney to denounce the GOP platform, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for that to happen. At best he may offer a wink and a nod or pretend he can't recall the state of Iowa.

(via Mother Jones)